Reincarnation - Bakersfield Meditation Society

Reincarnation
The Dance of Life and Death
Bakersfield Meditation Society
www.bakemed.com
Reincarnation is a Dance
Reincarnation is a dance. Spirit and matter join
together for awhile like two partners and have
experiences in this world. At the end of the
dance, the two partners rest for awhile before
the next dance.
Rama - Dr. Frederick Lenz
All Rivers Flow to the Ocean
All rivers flow to the ocean they say.
All men and women flow to the ocean
of their death.
And there’s a renewal at death.
A rebirth. Into a new life.
A new river.
Rama - Dr. Frederick Lenz
Reincarnation - Three Bodies
We are Eternal Spirits, and we live forever, in one form or another. We have 3
bodies: physical, astral, causal.
We are all familiar with the physical body.
The astral body is a body of light and is composed of millions of fibers of light
and energy. The astral body keeps the physical body healthy.
The causal body reincarnates from lifetime to lifetime. It is the thought/feeling
aggregates of who we are at a deep level.
Nirvana
Inside everyone, is just a touch of Nirvana, that shining and perfect light.
Nirvana is inside of all of us. It is inside our mind. All things are within our
minds. All heavens and hells.
The Bhagavad Gita
Worn-out garments are shed by the body:
Worn-out bodies are shed by the dweller
Within the body.
New bodies are donned by the dweller,
like garments.
-- Krishna
The Bhagavad-Gita
Death is certain for the born. Rebirth is
certain for the dead. You should not grieve
for what is unavoidable.
You and I, Arjuna, have lived for many lives.
I remember them all: You do not remember.
-- Krishna
Reincarnation
Reincarnation a cyclic process. There are endless
universes, endless dimensions, endless levels of
creation. In each one, something similar is happening
- the evolution of spirit through matter.
Rama - Dr. Frederick Lenz
Reincarnation
Advanced souls seek enlightenment.
Souls that are not as advanced seek
happiness and pleasure in sense
experience - getting more stuff.
The advanced soul seeks real happiness in
the world from absorption in the world of
spirit and worlds of light.
Reincarnation
Why bother to learn about reincarnation?
So we can understand where we fit in, in the process of life and death.
There is not much we can do about past lives. They are already done.
Our future lives haven’t happened yet and are too far away to really be
concerned with.
That leaves our focus on this life.
Reincarnation - Going to School
Think of reincarnation as going to school. When you go
to school, you’re in first grade, & then there’s summer
vacation. Then there is second grade & then summer
vacation.
You don’t go back to first grade, unless you failed the
course. If you fail it, you take the courses again & move
on.
You are studying how to become happier, more
knowledgeable, balanced and free.
You Can’t Take It With You
The Pharaohs of ancient Egypt tried to
take their possessions with them into
the Other World. That doesn’t work.
They went - and the goods stayed.
Reincarnation - Death is Not an Ending
The knowledge of reincarnation helps alleviate our fear of death, especially for
older people.
Death is not an ending. Death is just a pause between births. This knowledge
makes it easier to deal not just with our own death, but the death of someone
we love. We get the sense that we can be with them again.
Even if your life is not tuning out the way you want it to on a physical level, if
you meditate deeply, learn from life and study it - then no matter what happens
to you physically, you will have gained from this life.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a kind of travel brochure
for the states of mind between death and rebirth. In Tibet,
someone would read the book to the recently deceased in
order to remind the deceased about how to deal with the
bardo states.
The real value of the book is to read it while you are alive.
“O Nobly Born, be neither attracted to or repulsed by
anything you see, touch, taste, hear or smell in the bardo.
Know that everything springs from within your own mind.”
Journeys
Some souls have different journeys. It’s
not important to know what other souls
do, it’s important to know what you
should do.
If you seek Enlightenment, you should
know that there is a definite way to
progress, store and amass power, to
reawaken past life power and to
continue your journey.
There is No Santa Claus
No one keeps a list of your good and bad deeds like
Santa Claus.
The esoteric understanding of reincarnation is that you
will be in your next life the sum total of realizations you
have had in this life.
If you are happier every day, then you are definitely
practicing Buddhism.
If you are not happier every day, then you are definitely
not practicing Buddhism.
Tibetan Wheel of Life
The Wheel of Life shows 6 worlds: god realm, demi-god realm,
human realm, hungry ghost realm, animal realm, hell realm.
The Buddha in the top right-hand corner is pointing away from
the wheel as if saying “get off the wheel of life and death and
go beyond all worlds to nirvana”.
Reincarnation - The Best Life
The essence of reincarnation is to have the
best lifetime now that you’ve ever had, no
matter what is going on.
Don’t worry about your future life - simply
have a wonderful life now and to be as
happy as possible.
Death is not the end and our practice in this
life will assist us in our next life.
Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
discusses the warm, beautiful and compassionate teachings
of how we can deal with death and dying in a mature and
loving way.
References
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The Enlightenment Cycle, chapter on Reincarnation,
by Rama - Dr. Frederick Lenz.
The Bhagavad-Gita by Prabhavananda & Isherwood
Tibetan Book of the Dead by W.Y. Evans-Wentz
Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
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